My name's Scott. My family's been in Alaska for five generations.
I invite you to join me as I hike, boat, climb, explore, and travel throughout some of the most
awe-inspiring locations in America's last frontier, Alaska.
Today, I'm taking the Alaska Railroad, where I get a chance to see the Kenai Peninsula from a
completely different perspective. The rail is taking us to Seward, which is one of my favorite
places to experience Alaska's coastal habitat and wilderness, and the opportunities from here
are unlimited, from kayaking to wildlife viewing to incredible coastal island adventures.
Plains, boats, all-terrain vehicles, climbing, hiking, but I've never experienced Alaska's
wilderness and landscape by rail. The Alaska Railroad offers something pretty special when
it comes to experiencing Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, and this, my friends, I'm really excited.
I always say there's a great meal behind every great adventure,
and the crew holds nothing back when it comes to this breakfast.
Oh my god, that's great.
Rice and style.
So we're getting ready to head into the flats, just past Portage Valley,
and this is one of my favorite parts of the trip because it really opens up into some great
wilderness, and we're going to see, you know, Bald Eagle's Nest, good opportunity for booths,
great day for glaciers, so that's going to be a great time.
There's a real sense of solitude as the mountainous terrain of the Kenai reveals some of its best
hidden secrets, like this Spencer Glacier and this Black Bear just 50 yards off the train, and you
know, some of the best part of my travels is watching others experience for the first time
what I get to see every day.
The exciting part of this trip is we're going to go through a series of S-turns,
and these tracks go at a 3% grade up, so we will have gone from sea level all the way to 1060 feet.
That's pretty amazing if you think about a train, and we have an engine up here that's
got 4,000 horsepower pulling this set of cars. That's just outstanding to think about.
All right folks, so here shortly we'll be coming into the town of Moose Pass,
and Moose Pass was named by a mail carrier. He would always go through here, he'd always run
into Moose, and he got quite frustrated. So this mail carrier, he named this area Moose Pass,
hoping the hunters would come to take care of his problem, although I don't think it worked,
because there's still many moose here. Now Moose Pass, the one thing that doesn't have is a gas
station. Every year the city council, they vote on it, it comes up on the ballot, and every single
year the residents turn it down because they don't want the largest sign in their city saying Moose
Pass Gas. I arrived here in Stewart, and this is where Alaska Railroad got its start in 1903.
They first laid their tracks here, and they spent, they went from Seward 50 miles inland.
This is where tourism started, it gave people an opportunity to explore, do some hunting,
and today now the tracks go from Seward, to Far North, Fairbanks, that's 500 miles of track
altogether. This is a great adventure coming over from the mountains and dropping in here.
We've got more adventures ahead.
We're setting out to explore Resurrection Bay. This is a prime area for witnessing marine life
forms while taking in the epic views of the Alaska coastal habitat.
See, the real attraction to this area is Resurrection Bay. This place is alive,
and even today its shorelines remain unspoiled as one of Alaska's most diverse and rich ecosystems
for marine life. These pristine waters are protected habitat for a wide range of Alaska
sea life, from large mammals like whales to the smallest invertebrates found in coastal tidal pools.
Resurrection Bay out here, we just got dropped off on Fox Island. I'm excited about being here.
This is a great island, this offers so much, there's hiking to be had,
there's lots of history to this island, there's Resurrection Bay where we're going to go out
tomorrow and we're going to do some exploring around the glaciers. Lots of adventures to be
had, so let's get started. It's hard to believe, from the Alaska Railroad to the remote and historic
Fox Island, this, my friends, has been worth the trip already and we're just halfway through.
One of the bits of history out here that I was talking about on Fox Island is that this was a
fur farm where they would, they brought foxes on here, raised them, they braided and they
eventually ended up taking over the island. You know the foxes aren't here anymore, they've been
evacuated from the island but when the Russians were here they were hunting out all of the
otter for their pelts and nothing else for them to hunt and harvest. They created their own little
industry with foxes. How about that? In here we got a part of a wood stove it looks like. It's
interesting because it wasn't really that long ago but yet we get so fascinated when we see
we see something left over. Other people have been here. It looks like a piece of plywood like
something that was manufactured, huh? Yep. Good timber company, I tell you.
May I have no idea what this beetle is? There's a smelly beetle but
he's uh, isn't that cool? Look at that temperate rainforest, big old burly beetle out here.
Love that, look at that.
Woohoo!
As far as the trail takes a spectacular view, that peak right up there is when you take a hike
from the trailhead on the other side there. I can cross up into that saddle then on up to the top
there offering some pretty exciting views. After a hard day of play, a great meal, a fire,
and solitude of just being out here top it all off.
All right well this is a great day. It is really a treat just to come out here and
spend the night on an island and just there's resurrection right out there. It's gorgeous,
so great day. We're exploring to do tomorrow and good night everybody.
This is a life-enriching experience. To explore Alaska's coastal regions intimate like this is
unparalleled. You're connecting with Alaska in ways that most never get to experience in my
friends. It's right here in your backyard. To me there's nothing like Alaska's coastline.
There's so much life here which most of it simply remains a mystery to us. And just below the surface
it's evident life takes on a different perspective. Check out these sunflower starfish.
What's incredible about these sunflower starfish is that they're the largest
predatory starfish in the world. They can grow up to three feet in diameter, grow between 15 to
26 limbs, which allows them to be quick, efficient hunters, and move at speeds up to four feet per
minute. Glaciers, mountains, jacket cliffs, the landscape here is alive and ever changing.
The abundance of life above and below the water is something to be treasured out here.
I've been coming here for years and I've yet to see it all.
While you're ensured I highly recommend a visit to the Alaska Sea Life Center. It's Alaska's only
public aquarium and ocean wildlife rescue center. It's a place where close encounters with puffins,
sea lions, and other sea life are the norm. And the privilege of peeking over the shoulders of ocean
scientists and biologists all working to protect our amazing ocean habitat right here in Seward.
Well the Alaska Railroad is an amazing opportunity to get out of Anchorage, head down to Seward.
We had a great time, got out in Resurrection Bay, did it overnight, saw lots of wildlife,
and really got a chance to engage with the whole area. Something I'd recommend. It's a good time,
good show, we're heading home. It doesn't mean that it has to end here. The adventure begins with you.
